Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 977

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Network Working Group
Request for Comments: 977

Brian Kantor (U.C. San Diego)
Phil Lapsley (U.C. Berkeley)
February 1986

### Network News Transfer Protocol

A Proposed Standard for the Stream-Based
Transmission of News

#### Status of This Memo

NNTP specifies a protocol for the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles using a reliable stream-based transmission of news among the ARPA-Internet community. NNTP is designed so that news articles are stored in a central database allowing a subscriber to select only those items he wishes to read. Indexing, cross-referencing, and expiration of aged messages are also provided. This RFC suggests a proposed protocol for the ARPA-Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

#### Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1. Internet Mailing Lists
1.2. The USENET News System
1.3. Central Storage of News
1.4. A Central News Server
1.5. Intermediate News Servers
1.6. News Distribution

2. The NNTP Specification

2.1. Overview
2.2. Character Codes
2.3. Commands
2.4. Responses

2.4.1. Text Responses
2.4.2. Status Responses
2.4.3. General Responses

3. Command and Response Details

3.1. The ARTICLE, BODY, HEAD, and STAT commands
3.2. The GROUP command
3.3. The HELP command
3.4. The IHAVE command
3.5. The LAST command
3.6. The LIST command
3.7. The NEWGROUPS command
3.8. The NEWNEWS command
3.9. The NEXT command
3.10. The POST command
3.11. The QUIT command
3.12. The SLAVE command

4. Sample Conversations

4.1. Example 1 - relative access with NEXT
4.2. Example 2 - absolute article access with ARTICLE
4.3. Example 3 - NEWGROUPS command
4.4. Example 4 - posting a news article
4.5. Example 5 - interruption due to operator request
4.6. Example 6 - Using the news server to distribute news between systems
4.7. Summary of commands and responses.
4.8. A Brief Word about the USENET News System

5. References
6. Acknowledgements
7. Notes

Original text document

Next: 1. Introduction

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 977